


Nachos Are Not a Valid Foundation for Future Planning

by AdrianaintheSnow



Series: Labeled [35]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Background Logicality - Freeform, Gen, Stress about future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:28:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25140010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaintheSnow/pseuds/AdrianaintheSnow
Summary: Virgil realizes that college is an option for him over a plate of nachos. He is unsure how to deal with this.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders
Series: Labeled [35]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616662
Comments: 40
Kudos: 328





	Nachos Are Not a Valid Foundation for Future Planning

“Can I have the nachos today?” Virgil asked.

“Chicken?” the girl at the counter asked. Her work schedule seemed to match up with Logan’s class schedule pretty well because she always seemed to be working when Virgil came to get lunch. Today, Virgil had gotten distracted by the book he’d been reading in the library and had came a bit late, so there weren’t many people in the restaurant on the first floor of the student union.

“Yep,” he confirmed.

“No olives?”

“Yeah.”

“What to drink today?”

“Erm, how about an iced tea?”

She pressed a couple of buttons on the screen in front of her. “$8.73,” she said.

He handed over the twenty Logan had given him earlier that morning, and she handed him back change after a moment. “I’ll grab your tea for you.”

He stepped to the side of the register not that there was anyone else waiting to order.

She came back after a moment with the tea in hand. “Thanks,” he said, taking it.

“No problem,” she said. Her eyes flickered over to see if there were any customers in need of her service, and then she leaned against the counter. “Campus is pretty boring during the summer.”

Virgil shrugged. “It’s kind of fun to wander around when there aren’t any crowds of people.”

“Fair enough,” she said.

“You’re a student, right?” he asked. “Why are you here for the summer?”

“I’m trying to graduate early, so I’m taking a World History and English class over the summer to knock out my gen eds. What about you? Taking summer classes?”

Virgil blinked. “Oh, no,” he said. “I’m not a student. I’m still in high school. My guardian is just a professor and I come with him to campus when he’s teaching.”

“Oh,” she said. “Cool.” A box was set up on the window next to her head then, and she turned to grab it. “Need a bag?”

“No, thanks,” he answered.

“Enjoy your food,” she said, handing it over.

He flashed her a smile and turned to exit the restaurant. The elevator was only a few steps down the hall, and he pushed the up button with his elbow.

**…**

She thought he was a student? He guessed from her perspective it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities. He had been hanging around the student union and getting food from the restaurant 3 days a week. It made sense that he was here taking his own classes. At least it did from an outsider’s perspective. He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor.

It was a weird thought though: Virgil at college. Like, it was really weird. Honestly, this was the only college he’d ever stepped foot on and that wasn’t even until he went to live with Logan and Patton. To think about Virgil actually attending classes here was so strange. He’d never even contemplated going to college.

He got off the elevator on the top floor of the student union and made a beeline towards his usual seat. It was a little secluded couch like thing built into the corner that most people probably wouldn’t even notice, but he’d managed to find it on his first time up here. He had proceeded to cram himself into the spot every time since. He climbed into the seat now, laying his drink on the floor and his nachos in his lap. There was a window next to the seat and he could see half of the campus through it. His eyes sought out the math and physics building. He’d calculated which window was the window of the classroom Logan was currently teaching in a month ago. He looked at that for a moment.

Logan taught here. He had two doctorate degrees and a bachelor’s degree on top of that. Patton was a doctor. School was, like, a thing for them, and they were adopting him.

Was he… expected to go to college? If he was their kid would they be expecting him to go to college?

Could he even get into college? A year ago, that would have been a big fat no. College was expensive, and it wasn’t like he had been banking on any scholarships. In fact, his grades had been so bad that he didn’t think he could get into college with them.

But things had changed in a year.

His grades weren’t great still, but they were getting better with the help of Patton and Logan. He could maybe get his GPA up high enough to be accepted in the next two years of high school. Besides, didn’t college take into account improvement? He’d definitely improved.

Could… could he go to college?

Did he want to go to college?

Did he have a choice if his parents were both more than college educated?

He shoved a too large handful of nachos into his mouth and almost choked. Struggling to swallow and blindly reaching for his drink distracted him from his thoughts for a least a moment.

He… he liked being on campus. It was kind of fun. The library was cool, and the quad was really nice. He’d sat out on the grass a couple of days this summer. He liked this seat in the student union and the restaurant downstairs.

He also hated school. Or, well, he used to hate school. He didn’t… he didn’t know how he felt about it anymore. Logan and his stupid enthusiasm for academia had somewhat rubbed off on him. Plus, it was easier to like school when it didn’t just make him feel stupid all of the time.

He’d sat in on a few of Logan’s classes. It was… kind of fun to be in that environment, but would he still feel like that when it was a stranger up in front and not Logan?

What if he decided to apply to college, but couldn’t get in? What if he got in, but then flunked out in his first semester because it was too hard? What if he got in and got good grades, but then he somehow accidently wrote a paper that ended up almost an exact copy of a paper already online, and then he got expelled? There were so many possibilities. There were so many things he didn’t know and hadn’t thought about.

He was so involved in these thoughts that he forgot his phone was on silent and didn’t notice that an hour had passed.

“Virgil,” a voice said, slightly relieved. Virgil jumped and looked over at Logan. “You weren’t answering my texts,” he explained.

Virgil grabbed his phone out of his pocket and checked. He cringed. “Oops, sorry. I was lost in thought.”

“It’s not a major problem. I could guess where you were.”

“Sorry anyway.”

Logan hummed and pulled one of the chairs at a nearby table over.

The cheese on Virgil’s nachos had gotten crusty, but he still took a bite. “Nacho?” he offered.

Logan’s nose screwed up looking at them and he gently pulled them out of his hands. Virgil pouted at him. “I’ll buy you fresh ones,” he promised, reaching back to shove them into a nearby trashcan. Then, he looked back at Virgil. “Something is wrong,” he observed.

“It’s nothing major,” Virgil said, looking back out the window.

“Then it shouldn’t be something overly difficult to talk about.” Virgil glared at him. He just raised an eyebrow and Virgil sighed.

“I was thinking about college,” Virgil admitted. “I never really thought about going to college before. It wasn’t really an option, but then someone asked me if I was attending summer classes and…”

“And?”

“And am I supposed to go to college?”

“Do you want to go to college?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only been thinking about it for an hour.”

Logan hesitated. “Well, it is an option, but it is not a necessity. You have plenty of time to think about it.”

“But…” Virgil started. Logan waited for him to continue. “You’re a professor,” he mumbled.

“What I have done with my life shouldn’t affect what you do with yours, Virgil. I am quite involved in academia, but I know it is not the path for everyone. Whatever you chose will be fine with me and I’m certain Patton will agree.”

Virgil pulled at the edges of his shorts. He wished he was wearing his hoodie, but it was far too hot for that.

“We’ll talk about it more,” Logan said. “There are many possibilities, both academic and otherwise. We can do some research tonight if you’d like.”

“You and research,” Virgil snorted, “but that sounds good.”

Logan smiled at him and leaned forward as though to hug him but got stopped by the wall. “How do you even fit in there?” he asked.

“Determination and flexibility,” Virgil answered.

Logan shook his head at him. “Come out and I’ll buy you more food.” And weren’t those the magic words? Virgil pulled himself out of his seat and grabbed his still mostly full tea. A hand clasped his shoulder briefly before Logan led him back to the elevator to get more food from downstairs.

Would it be wrong of him to attend this university just for the nachos?


End file.
